the awakened memories
by solar flare of darkness
Summary: after rescueing rukia from execution, ichigo went back to the real world and later encountered two woman who change his whole world


**zanpakuto speech – inner world**

_**zanpakuto speech – outside world**_

**ichigo speech or thoughts – inner/outside world**

On the way to Urahara's shop, Ichigo asked both Sode no Shirayuki and Nejibana to remain inside his inner world till he reached the shop to explain everything that happened. Ichigo was having many thoughts about what was happening and had already happened. When Ichigo realised who he really was after regaining all of his memories, he quickly used what he had learned in his previous life and the dreams he had since he first met Rukia and brought his wild reaitsu under control and was currently suppressing it to the best of his abilities.

As he came closure to Urahara's shop Ichigo thought about the memories that he recently got back.'**Now all those strange dreams I was having since I first met Rukia makes sense.**' Ichigo thought to himself.

Flashback:

It was two weeks after first meeting Rukia, it was a rather long day so far and he was glad that he could finally go to bed. **'Ichigo...**' Three hours later Ichigo heard someone call his name then he was suddenly in a tradational japanese room with two desks inside it. He saw two people sitting at the two desks, he recognised Ukitake sitting at one of the desks while someone who looked exactly like him except with longer black hair and blue eyes was sitting at the other desk. He heard them talk about new recruits, patrols of the rukongai and other things Ichigo didn't know about. He learned that the person who almost looked like him was Kaien Shiba, luitenant of the thirteenth and a prodigy in the shinigami arts.

Ichigo woke up the next morning with sweat covering his face and he relaxed when he realised it was only a dream but strangely it felt very real to Ichigo for some reason. Over the next three moths he had similar dreams and didn't know what they meant and they were becoming more real each time he had them and kept hearing that strange voice at the beginning of each dream. The one he had last night confused him the most.

Ichigo opened his eyes and found himself on large peaceful island surrounded by a very large ocean, he then heard that voice again which he heard at the beginning of every dream he had. "**Ichigo... Come this way.**" The strange voice said that sounded female? Ichigo walked into the direction the voice was leading him which was deeper into the forest on the island. He finally came to a clearing when he was told to stop. "**Tell me Ichigo what do you see?**" The female voice asked Ichigo, he then looked more closely to the surrounding area and saw a large pit a bit to his left about fifty feet away.

As he walked closure to pit he saw it looked like it had no bottom, he then heard the voice again."**Very good Ichigo... Now I want you to think of this pit carefully, picture it as a area to store you're vast amounts of reaitsu. When you have done this pour all of you're reaitsu into pit and try to keep it there.**" The voice instructed to a wide eyed Ichigo who only nodded and did as he was told. He kept doing the same exercise over and over again for the three days but stopped when he couldn't hear the voice anymore which confused him as the dreams also stopped.

End flashback:

Ichigo now understood what those dreams really were and what they were trying to tell him and the meaning behind those exercises he was doing a few days ago. It was Nejibana showing him his past life's memories and was helping him relearn reiatsu control. Ichigo stopped his train of thoughts when he saw Urahara's shop infront of him, Ichigo then nocked on the door while Rukia was still in his arms."Ah, Kurosaki-san what a suprise what-" Urahara stopped talking when he saw a badly injured Rukia in Ichigo's arms and quickly let them in.

He then called tessai to come and heal Rukia as Ichigo laid her down on a futon in one of guest rooms of the shop. Ichigo then got up and walked to the backroom of the shop to talk with Urahara about what happened. As they entered the room Urahara realised that Ichigo was suppressing his reiatsu? Which shocked Urahara a bit making him wonder what had happened."Ok Kurosaki-san what happened and how do you have control of you're reaitsu now?" Urahara asked while Ichigo let out a deep sigh.

Ichigo then told Urahara everything he knew had happened but left out the part of him meeting Nejibana and that he was Kaien because he wanted to talk to Ukitake, Kukaku and Ganju first then he would let everyone else know. He told Urahara that he simply talked to Zangetsu about it and then learned how to control and suppress his reaitsu. After Urahara listened to everything Ichigo told him he concluded that they must enter Soul Society to better understand what was happening and help out where needed.

"Ok I understand Kurosaki-san, we will wait for Yoruichi-san to get back and then decide what to do." Urahara said then pulled out his favorite fan and put on his usuall joyus smile on his face."Thanks Urahara, now may I use the training ground?" Ichigo asked as he got up and walked over to door."Surething Kurosaki-san but may I ask why?" Urahara asked looking at Ichigo intently while Ichigo just shrugged."I want to train a bit with Tensa Zangetsu for a while that's all." Ichigo said while he walked over to the trap door, opened it and simply climbed down into the hole and training area.

Ichigo saw that Urahara wanted to see what Ichigo was up to as he also started to climb down as well but Ichigo stopped him."Urahara wait... I want to train in private please..." Ichigo asked with a nervous smile on his face, Urahara got a bit suspicious about Ichigo's behaviour but did as he was asked he would ask Ichigo later. When Ichigo saw Urahara move away from the ladder Ichigo closed the trapped door and put a kido barrier under it to ensure no one would be able to see what he was about to do.

Ichigo then dropped down to the bottom of the ladder and moved to the middle of training area and then Nejibana and Sode no Shirayuki materialised infront of Ichigo with their blades at their sides."Ok guys let's get started shall we? Nejibana we will start with you first and start off with bankai ok?" Ichigo asked with a smirk on his face while Nejibana got a blush on her face when he mentioned bankai and that shocked Sode no Shirayuki because she didn't know that Ichigo had bankai already when he was Kaien.

Flashback:

Two years after Ichigo was promoted to luitenant of the thirteenth he excelled in everything he was giving. Ichigo was standing inside his inner world since Nejibana wanted to tell him something, as he walked over to her Nejibana turned towards Ichigo and walked over to him as well."**Hey Nejibana what did you want to talk about?**" Ichigo asked with a raised eyebrow. Nejibana then looked him dead in the eyes with a small blush on her face."**Very well Kaien I wanted to tell you that you are ready to learn my bankai.**" Nejibana said a playful smirk crept onto her face.

Ichigo was shocked at hearing this but quickly regained his composure and grinned at Nejibana."**Ok Nejibana when do we start?**" Ichigo asked her but Nejibana just raised her hand to silence him."**We will begin now Kaien but we will use a different method for bankai training, you see my bankai requires something special that makes it different from other zanpakuto's bankai.**" Nejibana said while her blush deepened which Ichigo took note of. Ichigo realised what she was refering to and also blushed a bit.

They spent the next five months training for bankai and Ichigo was quite pleased with himself when he finally achieved bankai. Ichigo saw that for him to achieve bankai he had to become one with Nejibana and she one with him.

Flashback end:

The next two days went by rather well for Ichigo as he learned all of Sode no Shirayuki's 7 dances in shikai and 6 dances in bankai which he also achieved. Ichigo with the help of Nejibana sharpened all of his skills to what they were before in: kido, hoho, hakudo and zanjutsu. Ichigo achieved Sode no Shirayuki's dances and bankai because he trained with her inside his inner world which thanks to time dilation made 1 hour on the outside to 2 moths inside his inner world. He used this technique to sharping his skills to what they were before he was killed so many years ago and also trained with Tensa Zangetsu.

Ichigo also gained the true power of Zangetsu's shikai and bankai during his 'two days' of training. Meanwhile while Ichigo was training in the underground training area the others were very worried about him because one. there was a powerful kido barrier preventing them from entering which not even Tessai could break and two. the powerful burst of reaitsu they often felt coming from the training area while Urahara and Yoruichi learned everything they could of what was happening in Soul Society.

Everyone was ready to leave for Soul Society but they were waiting for Ichigo to come out of the training area. It was early morning right now on the third day since Ichigo first arrived at Urahara's shop and everyone was waiting for Ichigo to climb out of the training area and they all had worried looks on their faces. Inside the training area Ichigo had just finished up his training and was walking towards the ladder when he felt how worried everyone was about him since he could feel it in their reaitsu.

Ichigo reached the top of the ladder, removed the kido barrier and stepped into the shop and went to the backroom when he opened the door to the room everyone in the room turned their attention to Ichigo with demanding looks on their faces. Ichigo sat down with a heavy sigh and looked at everyone around him and let his now shoulder length hair cover his eyes so that no one could see that they were now azure blue while his hair stayed orange."Alright I know you all have many questions but I will not answer any of it until we get to Soul Society." Ichigo said with finallity in his voice while he still didn't look them in the eye.

Everyone there was shocked by his response and a bit angered that he didn't want tell them anything."Ichigo! What happened in there?! We deserve to know!" Rukia yelled at Ichigo but got shocked further by his response."Rukia... Like I said I will say nothing till we get to Soul Society and that's final now let's go." Ichigo said a bit angered by her outburst and stood up and walked out of the shop and waited for Rukia infront of the shop to open a senkeimon. Rukia was getting really worried about his actions towards her and the others.

She saw Ichigo waiting for her outside the shop and took a deep breathe to calm herself as she walked up to him."Ichigo... Please tell ME atleast what the hell happened down there?" Rukia asked while holding back a few tears."Rukia. Open the senkeimon now! Everything will be explained once we get there." Ichigo said getting a bit annoyed at her actions, Rukia shocked at what he said just opened a senkeimon and was off to Soul Society.

After five minutes they reaches Soul Society, as they stepped out of the senkeimon Rukia abrubtly turned towards Ichigo with a pleading look in her eyes."Ichigo please tell me what happened we are friends aren't we?" Rukia asked as she looked down at the ground, they were standing just outside the fourth division now. Ichigo couldn't take it anymore so he decided to tell her what had happened to him and he knew Ukitake would immediately head towards him when he feels Nejibana's reaitsu. With a grin on his face he looked down at Rukia and shook her by her shoulders to get her attention."Very well Rukia I will tell you..." Ichigo said as he materialised Nejibana's sealed state and held it in his right hand with the tip face the ground at a angle.

Rukia looked at what he was doing and was shocked when she saw the stance he was in."Impossible..." Rukia whispered out while watching Ichigo intently. Ichigo began to spin his blade while it began glowing yellow and his hair changing from orange to black."Suiten Sakamake... Nejibana." Ichigo said and then water gushed out around him while the trident formed in his hand. The entire trident was a light blue with three prong trident head and the other end of the shaft looked like a sharp seashell and there was a tuft of deep blue fur at the end of the trident head.

Ichigo turned to Rukia and saw her shocked expression making him grin."Well Kuchiki happy to see me again?" Ichigo asked while Rukia just tackled him to ground and cried into chest."You baka... Why didn't you tell me sooner?!." Rukia asked in between sobs while Ichigo just tried to calm her down."Yeah its good to see you too Kuchiki and besides I only got my memories back three days ago when I met Sode no Shirayuki and Nejibana after they came through the senkeimon. Now get up, Ukitake-taicho and a few others are heading this way." Ichigo said as they both stood but Rukia was still crying into his chest.

With Ukitake

He and shunsui were walking towards the fourth after doing a patrol of the area. He then stopped dead in his tracks surprising kyoraku and stared wide eyed in the direction of the fourth division.**'Impossible... This reiatsu its Nejibana's! That means...**' Ukitake thought to himself and then quickly flash stepped towards the fourth hoping this was not some sick joke. Kyoraku was following Ukitake with a worried look on his face because he never saw Ukitake like this before.

With everyone:

Ukitake rounded the corner leading to the fourth but stopped as he saw Rukia crying in someone's arms in the middle of the street. A few seconds later kyoraku stopped besides Ukitake and looked wide eyed at what he was seeing. Ichigo felt the senior captains looking at him and then lifted his head and looked towards them and had a nervous smile on his face."Hello there Ukitake-taicho Kyoraku-taicho its been a while huh?" Ichigo asked them sweating nervously, Ukitake took a few seconds to blink till he believed what he was seeing and hearing.

His old luitenant Kaien Shiba stood there with Rukia crying in his arms and held the shikai of Nejibana in his right hand. Ukitake couldn't take it anymore and simply fainted from too much shock.

**How the story so far, continue or not? Please read and reiew, please give any suggestions about the story so far and possible tips for future chapters. **


End file.
